David Penberthy stands reality on its head in an effort to avoid a rap over the knuckles from the Press Council

This was David Penberthy on 1 April 2011 in Penberthy: Waking up from the Green dream:

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To the enduring disgust of the Labor Party, the Greens chose to direct preferences to the One Nation founder ahead of the ALP, and she may now creep into the Upper House courtesy of their support.

This is David Penberthy on 4 April 2011 in Sorry Greens, we’re not apologising:

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The Greens are taking The Punch to the Press Council over my column of last Friday accusing them of pushing Pauline Hanson ahead of the ALP by refusing a preference swap with Labor at last weekend’s NSW election.

The story has definitely changed - from preference being officially identified by The Greens to no preferences being identified. This journalist obviously thinks that readers are fools with little short-term and no long-term memory.

The Punch should be ashamed of allowing this cowardly wriggle to be published online. Definitely not Australia’s best conversation by any definition of that term.

Exit Hatzistergos trailing smoke

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/topics-for-the-post-mortem-on-the-poll-20110401-1crv2.html

* I'm told Gemunu Kumarasinhe is an impeccable dresser, a flamboyant and sometimes theatrical courtroom performer, as well as a barrister who enjoys a reputation for fighting hard on behalf of his clients in matters before Local and District Courts on the NSW North Coast.

A snippet of Tony Abbott's family history

Just discovered in the bowels of the Vatican Secret Archives - the genuine ancient Abbott family crest.

40,000 defendants escape reverse class action suits brought by adult film companies

One doesn't know whether to cheer on civil liberties or worry that so many access p0rn0graphy on the Internet............

From an Electronic Frontier Foundation press release on 16 March 2011:

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked an Illinois judge to quash subpoenas issued in a "reverse class action" lawsuit accusing thousands of people of illegally downloading pornography, and urged the court to dismiss the case. In a friend of the court brief filed Tuesday, EFF argued that the plaintiff's "class action" strategy is an improper attempt to sidestep the rights of the defendants.

EFF has been involved in a number of copyright troll cases where content owners and lawyers team up to try to obtain the identities of thousands of anonymous alleged file sharers at once in order to extract settlements from them. In response, judges across the country have been cracking down on such abusive strategies. Thousands of unnamed "John Does" targeted in lawsuits filed in California, Washington D.C., Texas, and West Virginia have been severed, effectively dismissing over 40,000 defendants. These rulings may have a significant impact on this misguided business model, which relies on being able to sue thousands of Does at once with a minimum of administrative expense.

In this case, OpenMind Solutions v. Does, the plaintiff has taken a new approach: calling its complaint a "class action" lawsuit against the alleged infringers. Normally a class action is used by a group of plaintiffs with similar complaints of a single defendant -- not a single plaintiff targeting thousand of defendants with no attorney in place to defend the rights of the accused. OpenMind then asked the court for permission to issue subpoenas seeking identifying information for the Does, which was granted without the opportunity for anyone to speak on the unknown defendants' behalf.......

For the full amicus brief: https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/openmind_v_does/openmind-amicus-filed... For more on copyright trolls: https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls